#351_Updated Photos of Custard Cakes (Leche Flan Cakes)

 Personal size or Minis Custard Chiffon Cakes

 9" round Custard Chiffon Cakes

 Nice and smooth

 Chocolate and Chiffon Custard Cakes

Ready to go!!

For Custard Chiffon Cake Recipe, click on the  link below
http://pinoyamericanrecipes.blogspot.com/2009/06/150mango-custard-cake.html
just omit the mangoes.

#304_Buko-Pandan Cake

Buko-Pandan Chiffon Cake

For those who aren't familiar with Buko and Pandan, let me take a minute and explain what these words are...

Buko, pronounced "boo-koh", is a Filipino term for young coconuts. We used them in fruits salads, for buko pies, ice buko, etc. Personally, I enjoy the buko by just simply scooping the coconut meat out of the shells and eat them.

Pandan, screwpine in English (what a name, huh?) is a plant with long, narrow, green leaves.
It is known as the vanilla of the East as most Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines use pandan in various ways in cooking including flavoring cakes with their extracts,(click here). One popular cake is the Buko-Pandan Chiffon Cake.

Here's my version of the cake:

For the cake, I basically used my recipe for the
Orange Chiffon Cake, recipe #210, click here,
with a few modification.
For the topping I used Buko Pie Filling.

Here's the recipe:

Part 1: Egg Yolk Mixture
2-1/4 cups cake flour (sift before measuring)
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
Sift all ingredients in a bowl or as Martha Stewart does,
stir with a wire whip.
Make a well in the center and add:
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup Pandan water+2 Tbps plain water
7 large egg yolks
Mix everything until blended together.
Set aside then make the Meringue.


Part 2: Egg Whites Mixture
or Meringue
7 egg whites, room temp
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 cup white sugar

Using a stand mixer with the wire whip attachment,
whip egg whites until foamy.
Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat until soft peaks form
then gradually beat in the sugar.

continue to whip until it resembles shaving cream.

To make the Chiffon Cake....

With a rubber spatula gently fold ( do this in 3 batches) the egg white mixture or meringue (part 2) into the egg yolk mixture (part 1) just until it is well blended together. Do not beat or stir the mixture.
Pour batter into two 9" pans and bake in a pre-heated 350 degrees oven for about 30 minutes or until tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Cool the cakes completely before topping with Buko Pie Filling. Chill Cakes for at least 4 hours before serving.

Note:
(normally when baking chiffon and sponge cakes, you don't want to grease the pans, but I grease the bottom of pans, (not the sides) then line with parchment papers, then grease the papers.

For the topping:
2 cans of Young Coconut, drained
1 can condensed milk
3 Tbps. cornstarch dissolved in 5 Tbps cold Pandan water.

In a saucepan mix together condensed milk and the pandan water with cornstarch.
Cook, stirring constantly over medium heat, until mixture thickens. Stir in the the young coconut. Let cool then pour on top of cake.

The cake in the natural color of Pandan,

I added some artificial Pandan extract in the
topping mixture to enhance the green color of Pandan.
This turned out to be a pretty jade color but looks so fakey.

The recipe makes two 9" cakes.

Canned Buko available at some Asian or Filipino stores,
use them only if you don't have access to fresh buko
as nothing is better than fresh ones.

Frozen Pandan leaves

Because fresh Pandan leaves are not available in my area, I used these frozen ones, also available at some Asian and Filipino stores. If frozen Pandan leaves aren't available or if you don't want to go all the trouble of extracting the leaves, you can use the artificial Buko-Pandan Essence in concentrated form.

To make Pandan water or juice, process about 5 leaves in a blender
or food processor with 1 cup water, then strain.
I just used a piece of paper towel to strain the juice out,
then discarded it along with the solids.

Artificial Pandan Flavoring.

#264_Mango Upside Down Cake

Mango Upside Down Cake

I had used white cake mix out of the box to make this cake before I perfected making chiffon cake. The difference is huge not only in flavor, but also in texture. So if you want a quality upside down cake I highly recommend using any chiffon cake recipe you are already comfortable making, but if you don't have a recipe yet, here's a tried and true one: #210_Orange Chiffon Cake, click here.

Please don't be alarmed by the length of the recipe as I was. When I first saw the recipe from joyofbaking.com I thought it was too complicated so I didn't try making it for a while, then one day I got braved and decided to give it a try. It came out good the very first time. The second time I made it, the middle of the cake caved in. I know, it was discouraging, but because I knew how it turned out the first time, that experience didn't stop me from trying it again. The next hundred times after that were good. The only challenge in making chiffon cake is making meringue, which is quite tricky and requires a little practice, so don't give up if it didn't turn out good the first time; read up on making meringue if you're making it the very first time. Once perfected that process, making chiffon cake becomes easier.

This recipe makes three 8-inch round cakes or if you just want to make one or two of these, use the remaining batter to make Mamon, click here for the recipe,
Crema de Fruta or other cakes.

For 3 cakes using 8 inch round pans:

1/2 sticks butter per pan, melted
1/2 cups dark brown sugar per pan
2 fresh mangoes per pan, sliced or diced (or more, the better)
1 recipe of Orange Chiffon Cake, (click here for the recipe)

Pour melted butter in pans and evenly spread sugar over butter. Arrange sliced mangoes on top of sugar then pour the chiffon cake batter evenly between the 3 pans. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degrees oven for about 25-35 minutes or until cake is done.
To check if cake is done, insert a toothpick in the middle of the cake, if it comes out clean, then it is done. Avoid over baking it.
Let cake cool completely before inverting them onto serving plates.

Note from MaMely:If you want thicker cake, you can use two 9-inch pans, 3 inches high, or you can experiment with different pan sizes.

#211_Mamon or Filipino Sponge Cake

What is Mamon?

(pronounced, mah-moon)

When chiffon cake batter or sponge cake batter is baked in those little fluted molds, cup cake style, the finished product becomes mamon. Sometimes they are called mini cakes.

When I was growing up mamon can be purchased from any regular bakery and they were available in just one kind...which was the regular mamon. Nowadays, they have what they call Special Mamon from specialty bake shops. These Special mamon are brushed with melted butter then topped with cheese and sugar. Very calorific!!

Mamon can be made from either Sponge Cake or Chiffon Cake batter. These two types of cakes are very similar to each other in texture and in taste, but one main difference is that Sponge Cake do not contain fat in the form of vegetable oil or butter which makes it a fat-free cake while Chiffon Cake contains fat. It doesn't matter, we Filipinos love both kinds.

Use the Orange Chiffon Cake batter recipe #210,
to make fantastic Mamon....

....or you can use any of your favorite chiffon or sponge cake recipes that you may already have.


Pour batter in 24 greased molds, (I use medium size ensaymada molds) then place these molds in sheet pans. (12 molds in a pan). Bake in pre-heated 350 degrees oven for 18 minutes. (test your oven temp. first)

If you don't have the fluted molds, just simply use muffin pans lined with paper liners.

The author of Joy of Baking who owns this recipe that I'm using said to invert the cake immediately upon taking it out of the oven so the cake will not shrink or lose its volume. I can't do that with the mamon in their individual molds, so I just skipped that process.

Hope you'll give this a try. You won't regret you did!

Note from MaMely:

You can use the mamon as a base for strawberry shortcakes, click here. Just spoon some strawberry filling on top of each mamon and top them with cool whip or whipped topping.

Addendum:

Don't worry if you don't have those fluted molds to make Mamon....

You can save tuna fish cans or collect them from friends. It took me a while to save about 20 cans. Make sure to wash them thoroughly before using. I had to soak them in soapy water for a couple of days before I got rid of the fishy smell, but it it's all worth it because I love the size and shape of the finished product.

Make sure to grease the sides and bottom of the cans really well
before spooning in the batter.

Mamon becomes Taisan
I let the Mamon cooled a little on a wire rack, then brushed them
with melted butter and sprinkled with white sugar.


I used some of the Mamon to make Tres Leches Cake
(click here ), and it was great!

#210_Chiffon Cake

Orange Chiffon Cake

Adapted from Joy of Baking
with just a couple of adjustments in the ingredients.

Update, 5.14.11(Compare with Japanese Cheesecake
or Cream Cheese Chiffon Cake, recipe #297, click here.)

There are 2 parts to the Orange Chiffon Cake:
Part1: the egg yolk mixture
Part 2: the egg whites mixture or meringue

Separate 7 eggs and set aside

Part 1
Egg Yolk Mixture:

2-1/4 cups cake flour (sift before measuring)
3/4 cups castor sugar or superfine sugar*
(white sugar works just fine)
1 tsp salt
1 Tb baking powder
Sift all ingredients in a bowl or as Martha Stewart does,
stir with a wire whip

Make a well in the center and add:
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp orange juice
7 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla


Using a wire whisk or a hand mixer, blend all ingredients together.
This is the egg yolk mixture, (part 1)
Set aside and make the egg white mixture.

Part 2
Egg Whites Mixture or Meringue
7 egg whites, room temp
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 cup caster sugar
(or white sugar will do)

Using a stand mixer with the wire whip attachment, whip egg whites until foamy.
Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat until soft peaks form
then gradually beat in the sugar.

Continue to whip until stiff-peaks forms.
This is a critical part of making the Chiffon Cake.
You don't want to neither under beat nor over beat your egg whites.
Here's a link on how to whip egg whites:
http://bakingbites.com/2005/06/cooking-school-how-to-beat-egg-whites/

To make the chiffon cake batter:

With a rubber spatula gently fold (in 3 batches) the egg white mixture(part 2) into the egg yolk mixture (part 1) just until it is well blended together. Do not beat or stir the mixture.

Pour batter into ungreased bundt pans and bake in a pre-heated 325 degrees oven for about 55-60 minutes.

The cake is done when tooth pick (I use bamboo skewer)

inserted in to the cake comes out clean.
Invert pan right away after taking it out from the oven
so the cake will not shrink or lose its volume.

Yields:
With this recipe, you can make
12 mamon and 1 bundt cake
or
24 mamon in medium molds (click here)
or
4 (9" round) cakes for Crema de Fruta
(for recipe click here)
or
2 (9x11) cakes for Crema de Fruta
(for recipe click here)

2 (11x5) loaf pans for Custard Cakes
Click here for recipe

http://pinoyamericanrecipes.blogspot.com/2009/06/150mango-custard-cake.html

(experiment with the baking time)

Notes from MaMely:*I had used regular white sugar in this recipe and it did not affect the texture, at least i thought so.
Caster sugar is the same as the superfine or ultrafine sugars.

Valuable info: How to "fold in" ingredients

"The basic process is to use a large rubber spatula to reach down through the center of the foam to the bottom of the bowl and lift some of the batter up and on top of the foam. As you turn your wrist to deposit the batter on top of the eggs, you turn the bowl a few degrees. Then reach down to the bottom again and lift more of the batter up and over the foam. As the bowl turns, the batter and foam blend, and when there are no traces of egg white left, you’re done.

There are a few tricks that will help you fold. The first is to take a quarter or so of the beaten egg and mix it into the heavier batter. You lose some of the bubbles, but it brings the consistency of the batter closer to that of the foam so they mix better....." Read the rest of the info here.

#151_Mango Custard Chiffon Cake

This was my first Mango Custard Chiffon Cake to make which was purely experimental,
but luckily it turned out really good except the cake part wasn't thick enough.
My next tries were perfect (I think!)

The procedure is quite lengthy, but don't let it turn you off because
this cake is so delicious and it is worth all your effort.

There are 3 parts to making Custard Cake
and I got each part from 3 different sources:

1) Caramel from Tyler Florence of Food Net Work
2) Custard or Leche Flan by Manang of kusinanimanang
3) Chiffon Cake refer to my Orange Chiffon Cake, recipe which I had adapted from Joyofbaking.com

Without further ado, let's get started. First, with the mangoes....

Select good quality mangoes that are ripe, but firm.
Manila Mangoes are the best kind to use in this recipe.
Slice 2 fresh mangoes into chunks.
(Save the seeds to nibble on pulps).
Set aside.

(1) Caramel
Adapted from Tyler Florence

Make caramel using 1 cup white sugar and 2 Tb water.
In a stainless steel pot or pan,
combine sugar and water and cook over
medium high heat until sugar begins to melt.
Turn down heat and continue to cook without stirring.
The melted sugar will slowly turn into light brown then
to amber color (like burnt orange color)
Coat pans (I used 2 loaf pans) with the caramel,
swirling it around to coat about 1 inch up the sides of pans.

When caramel is set, spread cubed mangoes on top of caramel.
Set aside and prepare the Custard....

(2) Custard or Leche Flan
I have a recipe for the custard but it calls for
10 egg yolks which made me think twice
because of its cholesterol content.
Then I remembered copying down manang's recipe
even before I started blogging. Her recipe uses 4 whole eggs.

Recipe for the Custard or Leche flan:
recipe by kusinanimanang
4 whole eggs
1 can condensed milk
1 can evaporated milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix everything in a blender pulsing 3-4 times
Pour this mixture equally into the prepared pans and
let them sit on the counter while preparing the Chiffon Cake batter.(3) Chiffon Cake batter

There are 2 parts to the Chiffon Cake batter:
A) the egg yolk mixture
B) the egg whites mixture or meringue

Separate 7 large eggs and set aside.
According to joyofbaking, it is easier to separate the egg yolks from the white
while eggs are still cold.

(A) Egg Yolk Mixture:
2 1/4 sifted cake flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
Sift all ingredients in a bowl.

Make a well in the center and add:
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp orange juice
1 tsp vanilla
7 large egg yolks
Stir all ingredients using a hand-held mixer, or a wire whisk
until everything is well blended together.

This is the egg yolk mixture.
Set it aside and make the egg white mixture...

(B) Egg Whites Mixture or Meringue
7 egg whites, @ room temp
1 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 cup white sugar

Using a stand mixer with the wire whisk attachment, whip egg whites with
cream of tartar till frothy then gradually add sugar.

Continue to whip until stiff-peak stage is formed.

This is a critical part of making the chiffon cake.
You don't want the egg whites to be neither under beat nor over beat.
See links below on how to whip perfect egg whites.



Fold the (A)egg yolk mixture into the (B)egg white mixture,
doing this in 3 parts, meaning
Fold 1/3 of meringue into the egg yolk mixture,
then take another 1/3 and fold.
When well incorporated, fold in the last third until
you won't see white part anymore.
This is the Chiffon Cake Batter.

Now we are ready to put the custard and the chiffon cake together....
Carefully and gently spoon cake batter on top of the custard mixture.
Bake the custard cake in bain marie or water bath:
Place the pans with the custard/cake in a larger pan,
then slide it in a pre-heated 350 degrees oven.
Pour some boiling water into the larger pan
up to sides of the height of flan.
Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour.

The cake is done when tooth pick (or bamboo skewer)

inserted in to the cake comes out clean.

After taking them out of the oven,

let them cool completely on a wire rack,
then invert them onto a platter.
Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before slicing.
ENJOY!!

Related Recipes:Chiffon Cake, click here.
Buko Pandan Chiffon Cake, click here.


Links on how to whip egg whites to stiff peak:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4542568_whip-egg-whites-stiff-peaks.html

http://lowfatcooking.about.com/od/dessert/ss/meringue_2.htm

http://www.ehow.com/how_7604373_stiffly-beat-egg-whites.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/21/dining/food-chain-shrinking-egg-whites.html